Chapter 27

Arriving at the house they found Sophie sitting on the sofa with a glass of whiskey in her hands. She had a look of pure anguish on her face and they could all see the evidence of the tears she had shed.

"Hardison can you tell us where he is?" Eliot asked as the Hacker moved to set up his laptop.

"He has his phone so yeah I can track him." Hardison said softly then he threw an image onto the big screen showing the location of the boat and Nate. He had not made it far yet and was still within range.

Sophie stared at the screen and then sighed deeply. She had only one option left now, and she was not sure after everything that had happened over the last few days if it would work. She picked up her phone and dialled his number then placed the phone on the table on speaker.

Nate looked down at his phone and saw that it was Sophie calling. Did he answer, what could he say. He had been an ass but then so had she, he had only been doing what he thought was right, and they were all safe. He sighed and then picked up his phone.

"Sophie."

"Nate."

"Sophie I, I am sorry. I know you don't believe that and I know you think I don't, that I don't consider you when making my decisions, but the truth is that is all I consider, you and them, you are…you are all more important to me than anything else in this world and I will do anything it takes to ensure that you come out safely on the other side of any job we do, even the unexpected ones."

"The problem is Nate you consider only us to the exclusion of everything else. Do you not consider that if I lost you, or if they lost you, that would be just as bad for us as you seeing any one of us hurt of killed? Do you Nate? Or do you just think we will move on? Do you even consider what it would do to us if you had to die or when you get injured and we cannot prevent it? But you don't think of that Nate because you think you are expendable, well you are not, not to us. Nate you must understand that, that we are here, we are this family because of you. If you don't know that you are as important to us as we are to you then I don't know what the last six years have been about. You are my husband and I love you more than my own life, don't you understand that?"

"I do." Nate said softly. "I do Sophie and that is why…that is why I keep you out of things. I know that if it came down to it we would all put our lives on the line for each other and…"

"And you won't allow that to happen." Parker said intervening in the conversation. "You won't allow us to do for you what you are willing to do for us."

"That's not it Parker."

"Then what is it Nate because I don't know what the hell you are thinking when you go off and do shit like this. I am the Hitter, I am suppose to take the hits for this team and you, you are suppose to put the plans in place to make sure that those hits are not fatal, that is how it works, that is how we win."

"This team can take on anybody Nate and you know that, we have taken on so many people that I never thought we could get but you did, you had the plan, or plans and we all executed and all of us came out on the other side, that is how we work." Hardison added.

"Ok all of you listen to me. That is how we work, that is how we function, and we are not a team, not anymore, we are a family dammit." Nate said.

"Nate…"

"No Sophie let me finish please."

"Fine…"

"We are a family and in case you have forgotten I lost a family before, I lost one because of something I did not do, was not willing to do, and that…that nearly destroyed me." Nate said taking a deep breath. "I will never allow that to happen again. This was not a job Eliot, this was revenge pure and simple, the man was coming after me and I was not going to allow you all to be caught in the middle, especially you Sophie. So you can think what you like of me, I did what I had to do, and I would do it again."

"We gave all lost people Nate, all of us. Don't you think when we became this family you created that we were scared, hell I am scared every single day and I would die in a heartbeat to make sure none of them did and I think I speak for all of us when I say that." Eliot said looking at each of his teammates in turn and seeing them nod. "So don't tell me that you are the only one who feels the way you do about this family, hell if we lost you, it would destroy not only Sophie, but all of us so think on that."

"Add to that he was coming after you because YOU always made sure that every one of our marks knew it was YOU that had taken them down and that we were simply your team. You did that so that all the heat would come to YOU and not us after the fact. Now I know you thought I had not noticed, that we had not noticed, or that we simply thought you were an arrogant arse…and you are by the way…but the fact is WE took down Moreau and he was after US even if it was focused on you." Sophie added.

Nate said nothing to that. He knew they all had their demons, especially Eliot. They had all lost people he knew that too. Before they had become a team, before they had become this family they had all protected themselves by remaining alone, not getting close to anybody or anything. But Eliot was wrong, he had not brought them together, he had been coerced by them into this thing they did, then again after they had split up, all he had wanted was to walk away, but he hadn't and from there it had escalated until they were a family and it was too late to turn back. Sophie was right, from the beginning he had made sure that he took the centre stage so that any heat came down on him, that is how he had lost his father, but that was how it had to be, he had created this family, he did know who they were and he would protect them no matter the cost.

"I understand." Nate said softly. "I do, I know you all, I know how you feel, I know how you think, and I know how you lived before all of this."

"Then…" Eliot said sotto voice.

"Look the simple fact is that if it is in my power to prevent any one of you coming to harm I will do it, no matter the cost to me. That is never going to change. Sophie, I love you. Eliot, Parker, Hardison I care for all of you deeply, I love you all so very much as much as…as much as I loved Sam." Nate said his voice sinking to a mere whisper.

"Nate we understand. I understand." She said her eyes brimming with unshed tears. "Please come home."

"Sophie."

"Please Nate just come home. Please let us take care of you now, you took care of us and…and I need to take care of you now, I need…we need you to let us take care of you now please."

No matter how she felt about his actions, and she was still angry as hell at him, for what he had done with Moreau, for leaving the hospital for everything that had happened, but she loved him and the thought of him out there alone, alone and vulnerable and hurt with nobody, that was worse than the anger, he had to come home so that they could heal, so that they could get over this horrible ordeal and move on with their lives because she was afraid if he did not come home now, he never would.

"Nate…"

"Sophie..."

"It's over Nate, Moreau is gone and what you did you did. You should not be on that boat, you need to heal, and we need to heal, or Moreau has won despite everything, so... I will ask once more and then I am not asking again. Come home Nate."

Silence reigned as Sophie waited for Nate's reply. This was an ultimatum, if he turned away from her now then it was over as much as it would kill her she would allow him to walk away and it would be the end. She thought back over the last six years, the highs, and the lows as she waited for his answer. She looked at the three people seated around her, her family, his family, and she could see on their faces that they too were afraid of what his answer may be.